The British Foosball Association are proud to announce the inaugural season of the BFA League Championships, kicking off in November 2012.

This is a team competition for playing venues and clubs. This new competition provides regular nights of fun and foosball with home and away league matches against other teams in your region. The best teams will qualify for the National Championships at the conclusion of the season. This is the competition which the UK has been waiting for!!

The BFA League Championship is open to players of all abilities, new players can take advantage of the handicapping system to allow a level playing field and give everyone a fair chance to win their games. Provided away teams can be accommodated, teams from any type of venue can participate (e.g. pub, club, college or university, workplace, sports centre or even private dwelling).

Teams consist of between 4 and 8 players from a squad of up to 10x players, affiliated to a BFA registered club. Clubs can enter more than one team into the competition. Teams will be allocated into local or regional leagues of usually comprising between 4 and 6 teams. Matches consist of 4x singles games and 6x doubles games.

So get together with your foosballing buddies, start a club and sign up a team today!

Registration for the League Championship is now open, and remains open until 6pm on Saturday 27th October 2012. Teams will be drawn into leagues on 28-1-12 and the fixture schedule announced on or before 31st October 2012.

How to form a new club - It is easy to form a new club. All you need are a minimum of 4x members, a table and somewhere to play, and to register online on the BFA website here:http://www.britfoos.com/node/add/club
There is a sample constitution to download and adopt, or you can agree your own constitution (if so a copy must be provided to the BFA and agreed). Decide who will be your representatives and off you go – you are a club!

Register your team:
You need to register at least 4x players with contact details for captain and vice-captain. You can register up to 10x players for your team but if so (or if there are more players) think about entering two or more different teams from your club. These teams would compete against each other as well as against teams from other clubs.
Decide when you want to play your fixtures - There are 9 possible playing sessions each week (8pm evenings and 3pm at weekends), rate these according to how convenient they are for your team. Fixtures will be scheduled for the most mutually convenient date but can be changed by agreement between the teams provided they are completed by the deadline for that fixture.

Scotland
Scotland currently has 21x known playing venues, all but 3 in the central belt. No currently registered clubs. One or more championship leagues will be held if 3 or more teams enter, split into two or more geographical divisions as appropriate if there are sufficient entries. It would be impractical for Scottish teams to play in leagues with teams from Northern England, due to travelling distances to, thus if a single Scottish team enters it will receive a bye to the national finals, two teams would hold a championship play-off home and away with the winner qualifying for the UK finals.

Both registered teams, including a total of 19x registered players, are currently from the same club - if these squads were split or re-allocated they could form into 3 or 4x teams.

Discussions are under way at a local level with Edinburgh Beavers (the other Scottish club) and the Uni society to form a league of up to 4x teams with all fixtures played between January and March 2013.

If other players in Scotland wish to form clubs and enter a team then 2x slots are currently available on a first come first served basis.

Maybe the answer for Scotland this year is to hold the league division as a one-day event in a central location with all the teams and table types present. If all teams could be accommodated at the Teviot bar on a Saturday in March we could perhaps bring a couple of Garlandos up for the day...

Outside London, all matches played between clubs now count towards your National League standing, you can play as many or as few matches as you like, travel around the UK to play away fixtures and/or tournament team events, or simply accept challenges for home matches on your own table.

Clubs can join the competition at any point during the year, but only matches played in 2016 will count towards your points total.

Clubs must state the dates and times they are available to play home fixtures, and cannot refuse a Fixture Request/Challenge from an away team on these occasions without good reason (e.g. prior fixture or venue closure).

Matches should comprise a minimum of 10x games (default 4x singles, 6x doubles) when played home and away (max 2x singles/2x doubles, or 4x doubles games per player).
For team competitions within tournaments matches should comprise a minimum of 5x games (2x singles, 3x doubles - max 1x singles/1x doubles, or 2x doubles games per player).
If both captains agree, further singles or doubles games can be included in matches between larger teams, provided the match includes at least 4x singles and 6x doubles games, and no player (in the larger team) plays more than 4x games as above, and the total number of games is agreed at the start of the match.

Teams must have a minimum of 4x players to complete a fixture. There is no maximum number provided the players are registered with your club.
In the event of a team only having 3x players available for a match each singles player plays with the third player in doubles with the 3rd doubles game(s) forfeited.

The default game format is first to score 7x goals, with players handicapped 1 goal per difference in rank (of highest-ranked player in doubles). This format is recommended where beginner teams meet experienced teams.
If both captains agree the game format can be first to score 5x goals, or to 6 goals allowing a 5-5 draw with no handicapping. This format is recommended where teams are fairly evenly-matched.

Clubs can play both legs of a home/away match on the same occasion/location provided each club is able to play on its ‘home’ table type.

All results will be entered into a single National League Table/Club Ranking list, including results from regional leagues, team competitions at tournaments, and challenge matches between clubs.
Points are awarded as follows
5 points for a win
3 points for a tie (inc. defeat in a penalty shootout)
2 points for defeat by a single game
1 point for any other defeat

Only each team’s best 10x results will count towards the points total. In the event of teams finishing level on points, the game average (ratio of total games won to games lost) will decide the position. If two or more teams have maximum points at the end of the season all their results will be taken into account in determining their game win/loss ratio.

National Finals (BFA Premier League)
To play in the 2016-7 Premier League teams must qualify for the finals. There are three routes to qualification
Via the BFA London League
Via the BFA National League
Winners of BFA Team Competitions at UK Tournaments
At the end of the season the top ranked teams will qualify for the National finals to be held in a central location during Jan/Feb 2017 alongside the top clubs from the London League and winners of team competitions at tournaments. The exact ratio of qualifying teams will depend on the number of teams in each league. The Premier League will determine the National Champions and which clubs qualify for the European Champions League. The finals will be restricted to 8x teams maximum. There is therefore an incentive for teams seeking to compete at a higher level to fulfil as many fixtures as they can.

How to enter

1 – Form a club if you are not already a club – for this you need
Minimum 4x players
A foosball table (any full-sized type) and somewhere to play home fixtures in evenings or at weekends
Two club e-mail contact persons (at least one of whom is on Facebook)
There is a default club constitution which can be downloaded from the BFA website, or you can adopt your own constitution if you wish.
Register your club here - http://www.britfoos.com/node/add/club - and e-mail details to clubs@britfoos.com

2 – Register your team - e-mail clubs@britfoos.com
Provide address of home venue inc postcode
Days/times of the week available for home fixtures.
Any excluded dates (e.g. due to holidays or venue closures)
Your Home Table Type (make/model/photo)
Your team captain contact details (e-mail/mobile/Facebook)
Vice-captain contact details
Clubs must provide a list of players in their squad to clubs@britfoos.com including full names, years of birth and nationality (if UK resident under 5 years), any additions or transfers must be notified promptly – and at least 24 hours before any scheduled fixture or event.

3 – Challenge Other Clubs
Look at the list of participating clubs and pick an opponent
E-mail (or contact via Facebook) their club captain with a date to visit them for a match when you are both able to field teams.
Play the match and HAVE FUN!!!
Report the results (e.g. United 6, City 4) to clubs@britfoos.com within 7 days

4 – Go to Tournaments as a team!
Major weekend BFA tournaments may include a club/team competition, typically on the Saturday evening. These represent an opportunity to play several opponents in shorter-format matches on the same day and boost your club’s points total.

Costs?

There are no entry fees to this competition, however organisers of tournaments may require an entry fee for team competitions at those events, and teams qualifying for the finals may have to pay a table rental fee if unable to bring their own table.

Where tables are coin-operated, home teams are responsible for bearing the costs of all games played in the fixture on their home table. Away teams have automatic choice of side except where the ‘away’ table is provided by the home venue or team.